For example, there was a rugby club in Shanghai,[4] where many of these could be found, and there was also a significant presence in Hong Kong, due to the strong connections with the British Commonwealth.
The Shanghai club folded in 1952, and the surplus funds were presented to the English RFU for a "Royal Retiring Room", at Twickenham near London.
[5] Later, for a period under Communism, rugby was banned in China, with the national Sports Council stating that "the meeting of sullied bodies in physical contact cannot be approved.
"[4] In post-Cultural Revolution days, the relative strength of rugby in Hong Kong has helped reintroduce the sport into the PRC, and the head of the HKRFU George Simkin introduced a development programme there.
In June 2006, a delegation from Leicester rugby club led by Martin Johnson went on a week-long visit to China to promote the game.
For example, it has been reported that 44 million people in China watched sevens at the Rio Olympics — double the number in the UK and second only to the United States worldwide.
[13] However, in 2015, to help the game gain consistent exposure, the China Rugby Football Association divided the annual Sevens National Championships into four legs held in different cities.
As a result, according to Cui Weihong, secretary-general of the China Rugby Football Association, "[t]he sevens' action will keep going from April to November with a series of scheduled events.
We hope this intensive exposure will attract interest from sponsors and sports marketing agencies to help establish a professional league in the near future.
[13] In a big boost for the sport, Rugby Sevens debuted in the National Games of China in 2013, at the 12th edition of the event, held in 2013 in Liaoning.
[19] In November 2015, China qualified for the Final 2016 Women's Olympic Qualification Tournament, an event which would determine the 12th and last team to play at Rio 2016.
[22] In October 2008, China finished third (behind Japan and Thailand) in the Asian qualification tournament to book a place in the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
In October 2012, China finished second (behind Fiji) in the Asian qualification tournament to book a place in the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
In October 2017, China finished second (behind Japan) in the Asian qualification tournament to book a place in the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
In November 2021, China finished second (behind Japan) in the Asian qualification tournament to book a place in the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
In the qualifying tournament in Dublin in August 2015, China lost 27–5 to Ireland in the quarterfinals, so did not gain a place in the main Sevens Series.
In the qualifying tournament in Hong Kong in April 2017, China lost 28–14 to Japan (the eventual winner) in the quarterfinal, so did not gain a place in the main Sevens Series.
After winning the qualifying tournament in Hong Kong in April 2018,[25] China became one of the core teams again in the 2018–19 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series.
However, it has been reported that a number of east coast clubs are likely to be part of a proposed league run by the Chinese Rugby Football Association beginning in 2018.
They began playing again in 2019, when they won the Asia Rugby Women’s Division 1 title with victory over both Singapore and the Philippines.
China has been as high as Division 1 of the Asia Rugby Championship, most recently in 2008 when it was grouped with Singapore, Chinese Taipei and Sri Lanka.
According to Simon Chadwick, professor of sports enterprise at the University of Salford, "[t]he Chinese armed forces have been playing rugby [XVs] for a number of years.
They have believed that rugby is one of the best ways to develop the skills of their personnel, involving as it does strength, teamwork and decision-making.”[51] The People’s Liberation Army XV team, which is stationed at the army’s sports institute in Guangzhou,[52] also competes in an annual match against the Hong Kong Disciplined Services team in the TK Lai Cup, named after Hong Kong's Secretary for Security.
[65] In late 2017, it was reported that advertisements had appeared on social media targeting people of Chinese descent living abroad who may wish to represent China in rugby.
[66] Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest is launching the Rapid Rugby Championship in 2019, featuring women's and men's 7s and XVs teams from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Fiji, Samoa and Japan, who will play in a round-robin format from February–June.
[67] According to Business Insider Australia, "Forrest is hoping to expand the competition further in the next two years with teams from China, India, the UAE, Sri Lanka and Korea".
[35] In 2012, ARFU secretary-general Ross Mitchell was reported as saying that China's rugby administration "find it difficult to field their best team in international sevens competitions because their PLA players are not allowed permission to go overseas".
'So, us diehard rugby fans are left to do it ourselves' ... China’s sports organizations, meanwhile, should be run by people with real experience and knowledge of the games they are promoting, rather than by bureaucrats, according to Liu.
Rugby union has an unbroken history in Taiwan, but the Chinese Civil War and souring of relations with the mainland has meant that it was effectively cut off.
Nonetheless, Taiwan, playing as Chinese Taipei, has a very successful rugby sevens side, and it is ranked in fourth position in East Asia, after Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea.